Presiding over a grievance meet organised for Dalits at the DeputyCommissioner's Office here on Friday, Ponnuraj said that officialsincluding Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer should visit hostelsin the evening and check the quality of food served there by eating italong with students. Reports with regard to the official visit shouldbe submitted to the district administration periodically, the DC said.

Talking about the allegations of misappropriations in the purchase andstock of food items in SC/ST hostels, Ponnuraj said that committeescomprising inmate students, local Dalit leaders and hostel authoritiesmust be formed in every hostels. Godowns of the hostels should belocked using double-key locks and one of the keys should be handedover to the student members in the committee, he suggested. Dalitleaders also should take initiative to prevent misappropriations inSC/ST hostels, he added.

Earlier Dalit Sangharsha Samiti (Ambedkar faction) district PresidentS P Anand had brought to the notice of DC that irregularities andmisappropriations are in place at several SC/ST hostels in thedistrict. Anand pointed out that the authorities of Yedapadavu SC/SThostel stopped serving milk to inmates. "While there is sanction topurchase 6 kilograms of chicken meat every week for 22 students in thehostel, authorities bring only 2 kilograms every week," Anand alleged.Further, he said that students at many hostels lack proper medicalattention.

When Dalit leaders demanded an Ambedkar Bhavan in Mangalore, DC saidthat though there is a Bhavan near Kudmul Ranga Rao Hostel in thecity, most of the rooms in the building have been rented out forcommercial purposes. The building should not have been converted forcommercial purposes, he said adding that the remaining rooms in thebuilding should be used only for dalit welfare schemes.

Sahayavani meet

A grievance meet under the 'Sahayavani' scheme has been organised atthe DC's Office on Friday. Chairing the meet, Additional DeputyCommissioner Prabhakar Sharma said that all complaints receivedthrough Sahayavani will be disposed within 15 days. Sharma said thatthe Sahayavani counter in the DC Office will be open for public on allsecond and fourth Fridays. A total of 13 complaints were received onthe first day.

MADURAI: Twelve Dalit children aged between eight and 13 have beenhospitalised here after they were allegedly beaten up by some youthbelonging to an upper caste Hindu community.

The attackers, who were allegedly not happy about the childrenreceiving a formal education, wanted to send a message across to allthe parents in the Dalit community, about the repercussions if theydecided to send their children to school.

When the children, most of them girls, were returning from school onFriday, they were stopped on their way and beaten up by a group ofcaste Hindu youth. They also reportedly hurled verbal abuses at thechildren by referring to their caste, before beating them up.

While attacking the children, one youngster reportedly said, "It isonly because you people are getting educated that you rush to thepolice station all the time. This is to teach your parents not to sendyou to school."

Police have registered a case under Prevention of Atrocities Actfollowing a complaint filed by the Dalits. Earlier this year, threeDalits and as many caste Hindus were arrested here following clashesbetween the two groups.

RAJKOT: Six persons including two women were seriously injured in a clash between Dalit and Bharwad communities in Jasdan taluka of Rajkot district on Sunday. The condition of one of the injured, who received head injuries is slated to be serious at Rajkot Civil Hospital.

According to sources at Jasdan police station, the clash started after a petty dispute over sheep. According to the injured, Leela Vaniya, 70, and her son Kiran, 36, who are also injured and hospitalized, the fight started when they objected to the sheep of Mamiya Bharawad standing outside their house. After a verbal dispute, Bharwad and five members of his family allegedly attacked Leela, Kiran, and four of their family with swords and batons.

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NAGPUR: The police have booked a 24-year-old man for sexually exploiting a young woman by promising to marry her. Anita (name changed), 21, a resident of Athwa Mile, Wadi, was allegedly lured into having sexual relationship over a period of time by Pawan Mahalle who promised to marry her. The victim, who is pregnant now, decided to approach cops after Pawan refused to honour his promise.

Anita and Mahalle were colleagues in a pharmaceutical company at MIDC where Pawan's mother also worked. Mahalle allegedly had an amorous relationship with Anita for last two years. It resulted in Anita's pregnancy. Mahalle however remained reluctant on the issue of marriage and kept postponing the proposal.

A frustrated Anita then informed her mother. Initially Anita's mother wanted to solve the matter amicably, but Mahalle's parents were against the marriage due to caste barriers. Hoping to sort out the matter, Anita's parents visited the Tanta Mukti Samiti (village panchayat) where Mahalle agreed for marriage but didn't give a proper time frame. He then kept on postponing the marriage. Six month pregnant and no positive response from Mahalle's, Anita then lodged a complaint with the Wadi Police against Pawan on October 30th. "They have spoilt the life of my daughter" said victim's father, who is learnt to be a hypertension patient. Anita is with her mother at a relatives place to avoid social stigma.

Pawan, meanwhile, is absconding. Anita's parents feel that Pawan is being shielded by his parents and his disappearance is a planned one. His mobile is now with his father, and his whereabouts still a mystery.

Police have registered a case under section 376 of IPC and section 3(1)(12) Prevention of Atrocities against SC/ST on Pawan and are investigating the matter.

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CHENNAI: The ruling DMK, which has been keeping silence over KarnatakaHigh Court Chief Justice P D Dinakaran land-grab issue, broke itssilence on Saturday by expressing its virtual support for him drawinga parallel with AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa's bungalow atKodanadu allegedly built violating rules.

DMK's mouthpiece Murasoli allocated half page on Page 1 on its issuedated October 31 to carry the pictures of the bungalow of Jayalalithaaat Kodanadu and the extent of land reportedly encr­oached by JusticeDinakaran at Kaverirajapuram in Tiruv­allur district, with a caption"two yardsticks for justice — Can it be equal justice?''

Besides, the DMK organ quoted a verse from poet Subramaniya Bharathion the different yardsticks being adopted for rendering justice toShudras and Brahmins in Sastras.

In the verse, Bharathi says that "If Sastras adopt such an attitude,know that they are not Sastras but a conspiracy."

Just a couple of days ago, a CPM delegation including members of theMovement against Untouchability, which met Chief Minister MKarunanidhi, reiterated that the State government should not send anyadverse report against the Thiruvallur Collector's report onKaverirajapuram land-grab issue.

One of the delegation members told media that the Chief Minister hadagreed to the demand.

According to the Forum for Judicial Accountability, Dinakaran isallegedly involved in a lot of benami transactions including purchaseof several property in Ooty, Anna Nagar and Shenoy Nagar in Chennaiand in allotment violating the Tamil Nadu Housing Board norms.

PTI Sunday, November 1, 2009 14:11 IST New Delhi: The names of four judges other than that of chief justice of Karnataka High Court PD Dinakaran will be processed for elevation to the Supreme Court, chief justice of India KG Balakrishnan today said.

Asked about a newspaper report that the name of Dinakaran, who is facing charges of land-grabbing, has been dropped, he only replied, "No, no".

"We have only asked that the names of four other judges should be processed for their appointment as judges of the Supreme Court," Balakrishnan told reporters on the sidelines of the All-India Conference of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).

Law minister M Veerappa Moily told PTI that he has received several communications on various issues from many constitutional authorities but he would not like to comment on anything regarding them.

The move to put on hold Dinakaran's elevation comes amid allegations that the judge has amassed land in Tamil Nadu's Tiruvallur district.

The Supreme Court Collegium had earlier considered a report of the district collector of Tiruvallur which is believed to have pointed out that at Kaverirajapuram in Tiruttani taluk alone, the extent of land allegedly possessed by the judge was approximately 500 acres.

The Collegium had earlier cleared along with that of Dinakaran the names of Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court AK Patnaik, Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court TS Thakur, Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court SS Nijjar and Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court KS Radhakrishnan for elevation to the apex court.

The Collegium, headed by the CJI and comprising Justices BN Agarwal, SS Kapadia and Altamas Kabir, had asked the district collector for his report on the allegations against Dinakaran.

Earlier, various representations were made by eminent lawyers, including those from Tamil Nadu, urging the CJI and the government to probe the charges and not to elevate the judge.

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The tug-of-war between the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government onsugarcane prices refuses to end with Chief Minister Mayawati askingPrime Minister Manmohan Singh to review a recent Cabinet decision thatrequires states to pay the difference between the centralgovernment-announced fair and remunerative price (FRP) and thestate-advised price (SAP).

On Thursday, the Union Cabinet had approved an FRP of Rs 129.84 perquintal for the 2009-10 season, which runs from October to September,to be applicable in all states.

The FRP also replaces the statutory minimum price of Rs 107.76 thatwas declared in June this year.

This was done by amending the Essential Commodities Act (ECA), 1955,through an ordinance, and amendment to the Sugarcane (Control) Order,1966.

The state government had announced a SAP of Rs 165-170 a quintal.

"The state's right to fix SAP was recognised by the Supreme Court. Thegovernment of India did not take the state government into confidencebefore making the amendments related to FRP.

Thus, the interests of about 4 million cane growers of UP wereignored…The FRP announced by the government has enraged farmersconsiderably. FRP had indirectly ended the rights of the stategovernment," Mayawati said in the letter to the prime minister.

UP is the second-largest sugar producing state of the country.Industry experts, however, said the central government had wide powersunder the ECA since it fell under the Ninth Schedule of theConstitution and states could not legally challenge it. Mayawaticlaimed that over the last few years, the central government hadcontinuously raised support prices of crops like wheat and paddy,while the price of sugarcane was raised by minimal amounts.

"Owing to the crop prices policy of recent years, the area undersugarcane and sugar production has been decreasing continuously," shesaid.